Amazon unveils Pan-European fulfilment programme
Amazon has today (3 May) announced the launch of its Pan-European Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) programme, which it claims will “help sellers of any size export to millions of Amazon customers across the EU more efficiently than ever before”. The online retail giant also claims that the programme will mean “faster shipping times and lower delivery costs” for Amazon customers.
In a statement issued today, Amazon explained how the service will work: “Pan-European FBA enables sellers to deliver their inventory to a local fulfilment centre for Amazon to take care of the logistics; automatically shipping sellers’ products across its European Fulfilment Network according to the anticipated local customer demand.
“Amazon will then pick, pack and ship orders to customers from the closest fulfilment centre where the product is available, as well as handling all customer service inquiries for the seller.”
The company also issued this five-point guide on how Pan-European FBA works:
- Start: Sellers enroll products that are eligible for Pan-European FBA.
- Ship: Sellers ship Pan-European FBA enrolled products to a local Amazon Fulfilment Centre;
- Distribute: Amazon will distribute sellers’ inventory across its European Fulfilment Network – at no extra cost to seller – in order to get it close to customers, based on the anticipated local demand;
- Orders: When customers order the products, Amazon will handle the fulfilment logistics and provide fast, reliable delivery from the closest fulfilment centre where the product is available;
- Fees: For the delivery, sellers will only pay the local fulfilment fee of the marketplace in which the product was ordered. There is no European Fulfilment Network cross-border fee.
As a scan of the Post&Parcel news archive will reveal, Amazon has been ramping up its European fulfilment and distribution facilities significantly over the past year or so. In today’s statement about the Pan-European FBA, Amazon said that it currently has “29 fulfilment centres distributed across 7 countries” – and there are persistent reports that the company plans to bring more and more logistics in-house.
